On a lighter note-shopping Kenyan style

You are not in Kenya long before you want an African dress—one made of brightly colored, graphic prints that are the hallmark of African fabric in one of the styles that are worn by women here.  Nancy, my co-presenter, and Caroline, a Kenyan friend and guide for this expedition, and I headed to the tailor’s on Monday with the mission of ordering dresses.

A short taxi ride took us to the center of Kakamega’s shopping area with its rows of small, overflowing shops, street vendors selling produce from rickety carts and wheel barrows, and a tangled congestion of pedestrians, bicycles, motor bikes, and trucks that seem too big to make it down the narrow streets.  Caroline led us to a three story building and up uneven steps to the third floor and through a maze of halls with all manner of businesses tucked behind doors and in corners until we arrived at the tailor’s shop—well actually a room that is about ten by twelve crowded with treadle sewing machines and a work table. 

We met Dennisl and Dennis’s brother and son, all tailors and all working in this small space.  When asked if Dennis had daughters who are tailors, he laughed and said, “No, they all ran away.”  I know that Dennis does not mean that they literally ran away, but that they chose not to be tailors like their father.

Choosing fabric is the first order of business, and Dennis took the three of us back out onto the street to visit shops that sell fabric.  The shops are housed in buildings that remind me of a ship container or very big dumpster.   The entrance is two big metal doors which are open during business hours and become a place to display goods.  There is no electricity so the open doors provide the only light. 

We are given much attention by the shop owners, and they gladly begin putting fabric on the counter for our inspection.   We found nothing we like in the first shop and move to the second shop.  By then I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the choices, and it was hard to imagine myself in some of the very bright prints.  Caroline showed me fabric with large birds, and I shook my head as I imagined the  finished dress which would mean these large birds would be on different part of my anatomy.  Then I spy fabric with caramel colored background and white and black abstracted flowers as the print.  It is made of polished cotton and the sheen of it recalls being about twelve and the fabric that I chose for the dress that I made for my 4-H project.   I liked it, and Caroline and Nancy agreed that it suited me.

Back at Dennis’s shop with our fabric, he carefully measured each of us and recorded the figures in a notebook—metric, course.  The critical time had arrived which was the decision on the style.  I confess that I already have an African dress hanging in my closet at home.  I had it made when we were here for three months in 2010, but did not have the help of a translator when I talked to the tailor.  There is a style with very puffy sleeves, over the top puffiness, and my first dress has such sleeves, although I had tried to be clear in my request that the sleeves not be puffy.  I do not want to repeat this, and I was grateful to have Caroline’s advice and Swahili.

Dennis has posters on the walls of his shop showing styles of dresses, so it made it easy, and combined with his sketches I left the shop feeling confident that I will like the dress.

The Saturday excursion to pick the dress – Love it!!

Next blog I will chose a less light topic instead of shopping, but the experience was fun and I thought you might find it interesting.  By the way, the dress with fabric and the tailoring cost the equivalent of twenty-five dollars.

Next week there are nonstop teacher seminars.  I’ll check in later.

Fondly,

Mary

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